Better Call Saul 2x02 Reaction
Added 2021-09-06 09:05:46 +0000 UTC
Comments
I think you are misinterpreting Howards motivation. He did not sabotage Jimmy. Jimmy asked for a job, one of the partners (Chuck) denied it. This is neither Howards fault nor was he actively part of the decision. Chuck then asked Howard as his friend, if he could take the blame, which Howard did out of loyalty to his friend.
Andrew
2021-09-08 20:32:13 +0000 UTCWhen you say "Howard blocked Jimmmy from working at HHM" - blocking, obstructing, disrupting function; that's sabotage. By using the two words "blocking" and "sabotage" in contrast, it tells me that your goal here is to highlight the contrast between Chuck and Howard by splitting the proverbial hairs of the various definitions of the word 'sabotage' in order to highlight contrasting purposes in the sabotage of Jimmy's chances of being taken on as associate by HHM, which went from one-hundred percent (as stated many times in the narrative) to zero percent. I can completely understand the desire to contrast Howard and Chuck, the latter being far worse than the former in regards to their intent toward Jimmy. But intent aside, the action is a conspiracy of two co-conspirators. Howard played his part in the sabotage. The career setback it caused Jimmy is something that is a jerk move career-wise, but it's the emotional toll it's taking on Jimmy that's the real problem. Howard is a willing party to emotionally and psychologically hurting someone. A lot. He doesn't even tell Jimmy the truth. Again, I can see that your idea here is to contrast Howard and Chuck. Which can obviously be done in myriad ways. Chuck is way worse. Howard can be, likable. But he can also be someone who is willingly complicit in conspiring to sabotage a person's life while keeping the truth from them behind the smile of a friend of ten years. In the end, if you want to use 'blocked' instead of 'sabotaged' to describe what Howard did, okay. We're in 'rose by any other name' territory.
John Smith
2021-09-08 15:03:50 +0000 UTCI'm not saying that Jimmy didn't deserve a chance, just that saying that Howard sabatoged his career is an overstatement. When Jimmy first tries to get a job he's just passed the bar. Literally every lawyer does that and plenty of them put in long hours and hard work to do so, and many of those lawyers would get turned away from HHM. The only reason that Jimmy thinks that it's a sure bet is because of nepotism. And that's fine. I think Chuck was wrong and he absolutely should have been given the chance, but it's easy to see why the other partners wouldn't immediately decide to hire Jimmy even without Chuck's influence. He probably wouldn't have been given much consideration if he wasn't Chuck's brother. And then when Jimmy brings Sandpiper to HHM he definitely should have been considered again, but when Jimmy talks about "begging to be partner" that clearly is him being hyperbolic out of anger. No firm is going to make someone partner for one case. But he would get a chance to show himself worthy of becoming one because of the case. Kim tells Howard that Jimmy "deserves a seat at the table" because he brought that case in and she's correct, but this is still hardly sabatoging his career because they didn't take the case away from Jimmy. Jimmy still has it, and is free to take it to any other firm. If it's so clear that he'll be "begged to be partner" because of it then his career is just fine. Howard has only blocked him from working at HHM. Chuck is the only one that I would consider having sabatoged Jimmy because of how deeply it hurt Jimmy finding out that he didn't want him. Otherwise Jimmy could've easily built his career off Sandpiper and just gone to another firm. That doesn't mean that I think that Howard is a good guy. His treatment of Kim over the Kettlemans is awful and I'd argue that would be closer to actual sabatoging seeing as she has invested so much time and work in HHM.
Shadoe Price
2021-09-07 19:20:47 +0000 UTCKim and Jimmy relationship as it is and develops is truly one of the best things this show has to offer. Kim is really a great person, yet how does Jimmy end as Saul, when all is said and done?
David Caine
2021-09-07 13:09:03 +0000 UTCYeah I'd maintain that sabotaged is apt in its use. Your analogy is wonky because the hypothetical lawyers not getting the job aren't getting it because of some kind of legitimate reason e.g. not hiring, underqualified, etc. and they're surely told the real reason they're not getting hired. Jimmy's a completely different analogue. The narrative tells us he's qualified. Everyone knows that not only is he qualified, but he shows incredible work-ethic making a case out of Sandpiper. It's the reason for Jimmy's rant "you beg them to be partner" and Kim's wanting to know why he's not being hired. This is accepted as truth by everyone, which is why Howard breaks down to spill the beans to Kim and why Chuck has to feign being "very disappointed" with Howard not hiring the obvious shoe-in, Jimmy. As to the first time, Kim says so much in other episodes, future so. At any rate, Jimmy deserved the job both times based on his own "Charlie Hustle" work ethic and legal merit by getting a law degree and passing the bar. D&M had no problem hiring him. The fact that everyone knew and liked him and specifically, yeah, that Chuck was his brother, should've just been the icing on the cake. But Chuck and Howard deliberately obstructed Jimmy's career. And his life. And it's not just that Chuck is afraid Jimmy might do something to injure the reputation of his firm; Chuck can't abide Jimmy even being a lawyer at all. I mean, you know, he defecated through a sunroof! So instead of being the icing on the cake Chuck's the poison in the pill. But in the end it's like the Beastie Boys said. And not only is it sabotage, but it's sabotage that shunts Jimmy into an unstable life-environment in which he's more likely to fall off the slippin wagon. It's a Chuck-Howard team sweep of Jimmy's legs from beneath him. Twice. I mean it's not that I hate the characters of Chuck and Howard, I don't. It's more like a really, deeply intense disliking.
John Smith
2021-09-07 02:02:33 +0000 UTCIt's going pretty far to say that Howard "sabatoged" Jimmy's career. People don't get hired for a myriad of reasons, and it's very unlikely that Jimmy would've gotten a job at HHM in the first place if he wasn't Chuck's brother. There are probably hundreds of lawyers who have applied for HHM over the years and not gotten a job. Are we saying that Howard and the other partners are also responsible for sabatoging those other careers, or is it just Jimmy because we like him?
Shadoe Price
2021-09-07 00:15:48 +0000 UTCI’m glad Lola picked up on Warmold’s cards being from his father. Admittedly, I see his whole character as mostly comic relief but he got Mike to change his mind about helping simply because he inadvertently used the “dad” card lol. Mike must’ve got to thinking of his son and wanted to help despite his disdain for Warmold’s greenness at the whole thing.
Julian San
2021-09-06 22:29:04 +0000 UTCYeah the question of whether or not Chuck will be proven right pretty much dominates his motivations at this point. When he said he was there to bear witness, he's anticipating being proven right. It's like Chuck's electricity allergy is directly proportional to Jimmy's ability to get "away with things" and the only way Chuck can "get better" is if he can prove he's right and get everyone to see Jimmy the way he does, as Slippin Jimmy. Which is an interesting relation to the switch Jimmy threw in the previous episode. A switch is associated with electricity. Once Jimmy threw that switch, Chuck starts attempting to deal with his electricity allergy and go after Jimmy to bear witness to what he thinks will eventually lead to his own exhonoration. I'm speaking by way of metaphor about the switch. By taking the lawyer gig, Jimmy flipped a switch with no immediate and readily apparent effect. But what it did, was turn on Chuck's problem. The scene is like a metaphor of the show up until that point. Howard? Took part in sabotaging Jimmy's career twice at this point. And "I was just following orders" doesn't work for me as an excuse to sabotage someone's life twice. Oh on a tangent the guy who plays Baseball Card Guy has this funny routine (well, I guess funny is relative) where he went around local news programs calling himself the "Yo-Yo Master" and he claimed he teaches kids in school about being green through his yo-yo demonstrations. But it's all just a set-up and it always turns into a disaster and the news people struggle to react to the situation. Also I would venture to say that the lighting of Jimmy and Kim is surely by design. Intending to convey some manner of slanted dichotomy in the narrative of which Kim is, at least peripherally, involved by relation to Jimmy. But lighting is surely as much by design as anything else such as a tattoo, for example. Or just, the most incredible song. A song so exceedingly beautiful that you can actually see the melody and the harmony. In both sight and sound continually unfolding as beauty building on beauty it's like ... I don't know dude. It's pretty cool is what I'm saying. I'm talking about that song that J-Lo sings, you know the one. I don't know what it's called I don't listen to her stuff but I'm sure it's great.
John Smith
2021-09-06 21:06:17 +0000 UTCI forgot y'all were going to twice a week, what an awesome surprise. As always, excellent reaction and discussion. Some of your predictions are scary accurate. Obviously there's so much going on, but the 180 on Howard, personally, is my favorite part. I was blown away at what these writers were able to do with my emotions toward him in a single season. But every character is nuanced and interesting, can't wait to watch you learn more about this universe.
Kase West
2021-09-06 20:41:30 +0000 UTCI'm thinking of starting a squat cobbler onlyfans 🥧🪑👍
mrjackpotz
2021-09-06 20:31:50 +0000 UTCI think the differences in how Chuck and Jimmy view morality and rules is so interesting. Chuck views rules as the only and absolute moral standard. He feels fine when he treats Jimmy so poorly because Jimmy breaks rules and Chuck doesn't, Chuck is able to excuse any of his own bad behavior by reassuring himself that he's within the bounds of rules and law so what he's doing is okay. Jimmy is the opposite in that he views rules as pointless but cares about doing the right thing. He gets upset when a rule is in place for no reason and feels compelled to break the rule (the lightswitch). But at the same time he never breaks rules if he thinks it would be immoral to do so (all of the people he's scammed so far have been bad people or douchebags themselves, like Ken at the bar). This obviously changes by breaking bad when he starts doing less morally justifiable things. But Jimmy is able to discern between the law and morality, while Chuck views them as one in the same. Kim's thinking seems to be along the same lines as Jimmy, but she's more cautious. She was okay with ripping off the douchebag at the bar, but she's nervous about falsifying evidence because that could have some serious consequences.
Suhhh Dude
2021-09-06 18:47:23 +0000 UTCI think that another way to interpret the metronome at the beginning is that Chuck is seeing his own time tick away. Chuck has spent almost two years stuck in his home away from his work and office. We saw a couple of times last season that Chuck is motivated to get better in order to get back to work, and now his sleazy brother is helping his own firm on this huge case while he's still trapped by his condition. That's the final straw in Chuck's mind that he has to push himself harder to get back to normal.
Shadoe Price
2021-09-06 16:56:45 +0000 UTChttps://youtu.be/42FLAr86hbI you said you wanted to see it 😂😂, well it actually exists they just cut it from the show
Explosion_X
2021-09-06 10:37:53 +0000 UTC😂😂😂 The thumbnail sums up the episode
Dammy Oshikoya
2021-09-06 09:38:49 +0000 UTC
